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Mar. 31, 2015  In the 1990s the discovery of the oldest human made and completely preserved wooden hunting weapons made the Paleolithic excavation site in Schoningen internationally renowned. Contained within the ... full story

Feb. 11, 2015  Researchers have identified a gene in Galαpagos finches studied by English naturalist Charles Darwin that influences beak shape and that played a role in the birds' evolution from a common ancestor. ... full story

Feb. 11, 2015  Bird species have adapted to so many ecological niches in large part because of the variety of ways feathers lend them a competitive advantage. New research shows that one key to the feather's ... full story

Dec. 11, 2014  Where did the songbird get its song? What branch of the bird family tree is closer to the flamingo -- the heron or the sparrow? These questions seem simple, but are actually difficult for geneticists ... full story

Dec. 11, 2014  A massive international effort to sequence and compare the entire genomes of 48 species of birds, representing every major order of the bird family tree, reveals that vocal learning evolved twice or ... full story

Dec. 11, 2014  A question that has intrigued biologists is: Were teeth lost in the common ancestor of all living birds or convergently in two or more independent lineages of birds? A research team used the degraded ... full story

Dec. 11, 2014  The first findings of the Avian Phylogenomics Consortium are being reported nearly simultaneously in 29 papers -- eight papers in a Dec. 12 special issue of Science and 21 more in Genome Biology, ... full story

Dec. 11, 2014  Understanding the crocodilian genome can help scientists better understand birds. The DNA in alligators, crocodiles and gharials is about 93 percent identical across the genome. By comparison, a ... full story

Explaining How We Differ From Our Closest Ape Relatives

FORA.tv (Dec. 22, 2014)  Explaining How We Differ From Our Closest Ape Relatives
California Academy of Sciences - Cal Academy of Sciences
Walking upright on two legs is the hallmark of the human lineage. Understanding when and how we made the transition to this unique way of moving about the world is key to deciphering how, and why, we evolved. Scientists have traditionally studied hands, feet, arms and legs to understand animal movement, but primates differ in body shape as much as they do in their limbs, and this is related to the ways they are designed to move about the world - whether they hold their bodies upright or horizontally, whether they hang below branches in the trees or walk above them on all fours, and more. Over the past few decades, more bones associated with the trunk, including ribs, pelves and vertebrae, have been discovered for fossil hominins and our relatives, shedding new light on the evolution of body form in apes and humans. In addition, new 3D computer technologies allow us to study these fossils in new ways. These new insights into the evolution of human body form paint a striking new picture of the transition from ape to hominin, leading to a whole new way of thinking about our origins.
Video provided by FORA.tv

NatGeo Unveils Life-Size 'Spinosaurus'

AP (Sep. 11, 2014)  Scientists announced new findings about the first ever non-bird dinosaur that could have lived much of its time in the water. National Geographic created a life-size 50-foot model of the prehistoric creature. (Sept. 11)
Video provided by AP

All Early Birds News

Mar. 31, 2015  In the 1990s the discovery of the oldest human made and completely preserved wooden hunting weapons made the Paleolithic excavation site in Schoningen internationally renowned. Contained within the ... full story

Feb. 11, 2015  Researchers have identified a gene in Galαpagos finches studied by English naturalist Charles Darwin that influences beak shape and that played a role in the birds' evolution from a common ... full story

Feb. 11, 2015  Bird species have adapted to so many ecological niches in large part because of the variety of ways feathers lend them a competitive advantage. New research shows that one key to the feather's ... full story

Dec. 11, 2014  Where did the songbird get its song? What branch of the bird family tree is closer to the flamingo -- the heron or the sparrow? These questions seem simple, but are actually difficult for geneticists ... full story

Dec. 11, 2014  A massive international effort to sequence and compare the entire genomes of 48 species of birds, representing every major order of the bird family tree, reveals that vocal learning evolved twice or ... full story

Dec. 11, 2014  A question that has intrigued biologists is: Were teeth lost in the common ancestor of all living birds or convergently in two or more independent lineages of birds? A research team used the degraded ... full story

Dec. 11, 2014  The first findings of the Avian Phylogenomics Consortium are being reported nearly simultaneously in 29 papers -- eight papers in a Dec. 12 special issue of Science and 21 more in Genome Biology, ... full story

Dec. 11, 2014  Understanding the crocodilian genome can help scientists better understand birds. The DNA in alligators, crocodiles and gharials is about 93 percent identical across the genome. By comparison, a ... full story

Dec. 9, 2014  Motion scientists and zoologists have completed the first detailed analysis of the bipedal gait of quails. The scientists analyzed the effect the birds posture has on the movement of their legs and ... full story

Nov. 20, 2014  It has long been thought that dramatic changes in a landscape like the formation of the Andes Mountain range or the Amazon River is the main driver that initiates species to diverge. However, a ... full story

Nov. 6, 2014  The dodo is among the most famous extinct creatures, and a poster child for human-caused extinction events. Despite its notoriety, and the fact that the species was alive during recorded human ... full story

Nov. 5, 2014  In order to determine the feather color of ancient organisms such as Archaeopteryx, microscopic melanin-containing structures called melanosomes have been compared in a variety of living and fossil ... full story

Nov. 5, 2014  The eggs of amniotes - mammals, reptiles and birds – come in a remarkable variety of shapes and sizes. Evolutionary biologists have now addressed shape variety in terrestrial vertebrates' ... full story

Oct. 30, 2014  Why were dinosaurs covered in a cloak of feathers long before the early bird species Archaeopteryx first attempted flight? Researchers postulate that these ancient reptiles had a highly developed ... full story

Oct. 29, 2014  With an eye toward making better running robots, researchers have made surprising new findings about some of nature's most energy efficient bipeds -- running birds. Their skills may have evolved ... full story

Oct. 14, 2014  Brazilian scientists have discovered a near-intact fossilized bird egg -- the country’s first -- in Sao Paulo State. Compared to the abundance of eggs from non-avian dinosaurs, finds of complete ... full story

Sep. 30, 2014  Although we now appreciate that birds evolved from a branch of the dinosaur family tree, a crucial adaptation for flight has continued to puzzle evolutionary biologists. During the millions of years ... full story

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